


An Unbearable Cold

by hutchabelle



Series: An Unbearable Cold [1]
Category: Everlark - Fandom, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-11
Updated: 2014-01-11
Packaged: 2018-01-08 09:36:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1131048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hutchabelle/pseuds/hutchabelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Katniss joins Peeta and his friends for a day of sledding. Without the proper winter clothing, Katniss battles hypothermia and only the underlying heat between them can warm her. Modern AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Unbearable Cold

Katniss stood in front of the full length mirror and laughed at the image. She was dressed in coveralls with a light orange knit beanie, a gray fleece scarf knotted around her neck, and wool mittens. The only thing she couldn’t find was her pair of snow boots, and that was a problem considering Peeta would be by to pick her up in less than ten minutes.

She’d looked all over the apartment and was growing more frustrated as each second passed as she slammed drawers shut and rifled through her closet. The problem was Peeta continually teased her about her temper, and she had no interest in listening to him today.

Katniss smiled softly when she thought about him. Peeta, her friend since middle school, and she had ended up at the same college together and they’d grown closer and closer until she couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t seen him every day. He was her rock, the person she turned to when she’d almost lost her scholarship during her sophomore year and wasn’t sure how she’d pay her tuition without it. He was who had held her the night her high school boyfriend Gale sent her an email explaining that he was seeing someone else and that they weren’t right for each other anymore, tenderly wiping the tears as they ran down her cheeks. When she tried out for and was accepted into the most elite of the choral ensembles at their university, he took her out to celebrate and attended every one of her concerts, including her Christmas concert a few days before.

And she’d been there for him too. Peeta seemed to have fewer dramatic events in his life but he never turned down her friendship, consistently seeking her out to tell her when his work was accepted into an art show, asking her to have coffee with him between classes, and inviting her out with his groups of friends—something he never seemed to lack.

That was the situation today. Peeta’s art club friends were going sledding on the hill behind the art building to celebrate the beginning of their winter break, and he’d asked her to come along.

Glancing at her phone, she realized she had less than five minutes to find something to wear on her feet or she’d be facing the bemusement in Peeta’s deep blue eyes, the same kind that twinkled there when he’d admitted he wanted more from her than just a friendship. She’d been shocked, surprised beyond belief that the intensity she’d often seen burning in his gaze was an attraction past that of a friend.

It had taken her a couple of weeks and some heart to heart conversations with her sister, who had always been a fan of Peeta, before she was willing to admit to him that she was willing to give it a chance. It had only been a couple of months, but the burgeoning relationship made both of them happier than they’d been in a very long time.

A quick knock on the door shook her from her reverie and she jerked on the socks she was holding and shoved her feet in her tennis shoes before running to the door to greet Peeta.

“Hi,” she blurted, unable to form more of a coherent thought when she saw the blonde waves peeking out from below the powder blue stocking cap he was wearing that highlighted his beautiful eyes. She grabbed the doorjamb to steady herself when she felt herself falling into the depths of them.

“Hi, yourself,” he laughed and dropped a quick kiss on her lips. “Ready to go?”

Katniss nodded, frustrated that he’d pulled back so quickly when his lips on hers resulted in a delightful warmth that spread from her mouth to her cheeks. Nothing had happened between them yet past some heavy kissing, and Katniss wondered if there was a reason why Peeta hadn’t taken the next step.

She was ready to make the move herself, but she also knew Peeta wasn’t the type who enjoyed being pushed. He was deliberate and patient; calculating, but not in a manipulative way. She was the one who rushed things, often finding herself in situations she hadn’t thought through enough.

Like going sledding in below freezing temperatures without snow boots.

The afternoon passed quickly and with a lot of laughter. Peeta’s friends made Katniss feel more than welcome, and she appreciated their willingness to accept her into their group. A number of them reminded her of her friend Cinna who’d graduated with a degree in fashion design the year before.

But it was Peeta who made Katniss smile so widely her face hurt. He never tired, pulling the sleds up the hill countless times, pulling Katniss along by her hand over and over again until her legs burned from the number of turns they’d taken.

After the first several trips, he’d turned to her with a wide smile and asked, “Want to race?”

Always competitive, Katniss nodded enthusiastically and found herself engaged in every random contest she could imagine and then some.

“First one down the hill!” he tossed over his shoulder when he was ten feet ahead of her.

“This time whoever gets the closest to that big tree at the bottom wins!” was the next challenge.

“Backward!”

“On your knees!”

“Blindfolded!” as he wrapped her scarf around her eyes.

Each time they laughed so hard they fell off their sleds long before reaching the bottom of the hill, but Peeta continued suggesting new ways to make the experience fun.

After two hours, Katniss knew she couldn’t keep going much longer. Her feet were freezing, and she couldn’t control the shaking in her mouth or her shoulders as the chills ran through her body.

“Peeta,” she gasped on yet another trip up the hill.

“Peeta,” she insisted a little louder when he didn’t slow down.

He glanced over his shoulder at her, the two round plastic discs bouncing against his shoulder as he pulled her up the hill. “What?”

“I’m really getting cold,” she admitted. “Can we go soon?”

A look of surprise crossed his face, but he didn’t lose his good-natured smile. “Sure, Katniss. It’s probably the shoes. You really should have worn boots,” he observed.

Swallowing her irritation, she reached the top and waited for Peeta’s suggestion for the final trip down the hill. Situating the two sleds next to each other, he sat down with his legs crossed in his sled and motioned for her to do the same. When she did, he reached toward her and grasped her hands in his.

“Let’s do this one together.”

“Together?”

“Yes. Together.”

The intensity of his look rocketed through her and caused a tingling in her toes. With his gloved fingers intertwined with hers, he rocked himself enough to start moving and pulled her along with him.

The two sleds flew down the hill, bumping lightly against each other a few times, and careening wildly out of control at the bottom. It took them both a moment to realize they were heading directly toward the tree with no indication that either sled would stop before impact. At the last second, Peeta leaned over and pulled Katniss with him so they fell together onto the hard packed snow.

Peeta rolled once to cushion the landing and Katniss found herself sprawled across him as her sled wacked into the tree and cracked.

Ripping her eyes from that vision, she locked her frantic gaze on Peeta and froze. His arms surrounded her and his body cushioned hers from the hard, cold ground. His lips turned up in a slight smile as her face settled just above his, and he waited patiently for her to make up her mind.

With a sharp intake of breath, she leaned down and placed her lips to his. Warmth spread rapidly through her, and her mind registered nothing but the feel of his lips and tongue against hers. His arms tightened around her and his head slanted under hers so he could reach further into the recesses of her mouth as they kissed with a passion neither of them had allowed to surface between them before.

Several minutes passed, the two locked together, before Katniss registered the jeers and clapping from Peeta’s friends. Mortified, she pulled away from him as if he had burned her and scrambled to her feet. Her face blushed a deep crimson, and she wanted to hit him when he showed nothing but smug satisfaction.

She extended her hand to pull him from the ground and waited while he collected their sleds, hers probably damaged beyond repair.

Peeta bid his friends goodbye, but Katniss couldn’t look at them through her haze of humiliation. Her cheeks burned and she broke out into a cold sweat as she avoided looking his friends in the eye. Despite that surface heat, it became apparent on the walk back to his car that the wave of heat generated by his lips and her embarrassment couldn’t mask the drop in her body temperature over the course of the past few hours.

As Peeta turned on the heat in the car, Katniss screamed in pain as the warm air hit her feet.

“Katniss! What’s wrong?” Peeta asked in terror.

Tears streaked her cheeks. It felt as if thousands of needles were pricking her feet.

Through chattering teeth, she cried, “I’m so cold, Peeta. I want to go home.”

“Of course,” he agreed and turned the car toward her apartment.

It only took a few minutes to get there, but it felt like hours as she writhed in pain. She knew her body temperature had dropped dangerously low and she needed the warmth the heater was blowing, but the warm air also created waves of pain and her extremities began to thaw.

Peeta pulled into a parking spot and turned to Katniss in concern. “Can you walk?”

Biting her lower lip, she shook her head. “I don’t know, Peeta. I can’t really feel my feet.”

“Hold on. I’ll carry you,” Peeta instructed as he rushed to the passenger’s side and pulled her from the car.

Peeta’s strong arms carried her up the stairs to her apartment. He took the keys from her trembling hands and unlocked the door, which took some handiwork since she was clinging to him and blocking his view. Kicking the door open, he carried her to her couch and deposited her there before retrieving the keys from the door and pulling some blankets from her bedroom closet.

“Here,” he offered as he piled three blankets on top of her and headed to the kitchen to find something to warm her up from the inside.

“Geez, Katniss. Don’t you have any food in this place?” he asked as he shuffled through her pantry. Katniss simply shivered on the couch, unable to speak through her chattering teeth, while Peeta found a box of tea bags and heated some water.

“Drink this,” he urged when he rejoined her in the living room.

Katniss tried, but Peeta had to hold the cup because she was shaking so badly. When she’d consumed the entire mug and hadn’t shown any outward signs of thawing, Peeta’s concern increased.

“Maybe we should get you out of those wet clothes? Your coveralls are soaked and your tennis shoes can’t be helping warm up your feet.” Peeta waited for her nod of approval before he pulled the covers from her and unzipped the coveralls to expose the t-shirt and exercise leggings beneath.

“Is this all you were wearing under there, Katniss? No wonder you’re freezing! Don’t you know how to dress for winter? All that time in the woods back home and this is what you do when you spend time outside at college?” Peeta shook his head at her and worked the frozen shoelaces so he could pull off her Nikes. Her moans of pain created some hesitation but when he stripped them and her wet socks from her feet, he encased her skin in his hands and rubbed her feet gently to increase the circulation.

“That’s so much better…” she breathed as the feeling started to return amid a number of pin prickles. She shivered again as Peeta pulled the blankets up to her chin.

Peeta shook his head again and muttered, “Your feet are freezing. If the rest of you is this cold, I don’t want to think about how dangerous that was for you today.”

His eyes locked on her and Katniss felt a pull, a need inside her that ached after the kiss in the snow.

Maybe it was the cold. Maybe it was the concerned look in Peeta’s eyes. Maybe it was the months of waiting, but Katniss said something very un-Katniss-like in her hypothermic state.

“You know, I think it’s scientifically proven that body heat is one of the best ways to cure hypothermia.”

Peeta froze. Katniss continued to breathe shallowly, hoping she hadn’t shocked him too much, and desperately hoping he’d realize the brilliance of her observation.

“Katniss…”

She sat in silence, waiting for him to make the next move. When it seemed that he wasn’t going to, he finally reached his hand to place it behind her neck and ran his thumb along her jaw. She leaned into him, signaling her desire for him.

He pulled the blankets from her shoulders with his left hand and ran it along her torso to the bottom of her t-shirt and slipped his fingers underneath. His warm skin against the cold of hers resulted in a moan of happiness slipping from her lips. Shivering from both her body temperature and his hands on her skin, she kept her gaze focused on him, not quite convinced he would continue.

He slid his hands higher so his fingertips brushed the skin just below her breasts and stopped.

“Katniss, I can run you a warm bath if that would help.”

Frustrated, Katniss retorted, “Peeta, I just want you. Nothing else.”

Slowly, he raised his eyes to hers and whispered hoarsely, “If that’s what you want…”

“It’s what I want.”

He took one last gulp and leaned in to kiss Katniss, his mouth warm and comforting, before the heat between them exploded. Suddenly he couldn’t get enough and his hands roamed her body, searching for bare skin beneath her clothing and pulling it from her as quickly as he could.

Her arms encircled him. As her limbs stopped shaking, she worked her hands under his shirt. His gasp at her cold hands on his skin caused her to giggle and whisper in his ear, “Warm me up faster, Peeta.”

Pulling back, he stripped in seconds and fumbled for his wallet. Pulling a foil wrapper from it, he placed it on the coffee table and turned back to her. Katniss had only a few seconds to admire his naked form before he was back in her arms and his mouth on hers.

He eased her back on the couch, kissing her more and more thoroughly with every sweep of his tongue. His warm body covered every inch of hers and she relished in the feel of his skin against hers. Her hands roamed his back feverishly as she worked desperately to get closer to him. His chest pressed against her and she could feel the heat coursing from him until the tips of her toes warmed. His hands rubbed the life back into her limbs until she couldn’t think of anything but the warmth between them and how good his hands felt on her bare skin.

“Katniss,” he moaned into her mouth as her hand found the small of his back and dipped lower to cup the curve of his backside. “Oh god…”

His mouth worked along her jawline and down her neck to the hollow of her collarbone until she couldn’t take it anymore.

“Please, Peeta. Take me to the bedroom.”

Rising quickly, he grabbed the condom, picked her up, and rushed to her bedroom. Pushing down the blanket with one of his feet, he placed her on the bed, ripped open the condom, rolled it on, and settled on top of her.

Pulling her legs up to wrap around his back, he paused one last time but she was insistent.

“Come on, Peeta. Move.”

He filled her then and every pin prick in her feet, every shiver, every clack of her teeth was worth it. Heat combusted between them, his breath in her ear, her fingers entwined in his hair, his arms helping hold her to him. They moved beneath the covers together, alternating every few minutes between fast and slow, the heat between them propelling the last vestiges of cold from her body.

She could feel the muscles flexing and tightening in his back as he thrust into her and the sounds of pleasure that escaped him drove her crazy. A sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead as she felt him trying to slow down. In response, she swiveled her hips a little harder and Peeta groaned in satisfaction as he climaxed.

He pressed small kisses to her face as he stilled completely and dropped onto his back beside her. Turning on her side, she cuddled into him and dropped a kiss on his collarbone.

“Everything alright?” she queried quietly.

“It’s perfect. I wish I could freeze this moment in time and live in it forever.”

A goofy smile spread across Katniss’ face as Peeta moved from bed. When he returned, he sat on the edge next to her. Trailing his finger along her shoulder blade that peeked from beneath her duvet, he observed, “You seem to be warmed up now. I hope you had fun today, despite the cold.”

“Fun isn’t really the word, Peeta,” she teased. “I could get used to this.”

He chuckled and continued to caress her. “It’s late. Maybe I should head home. I told my roommates I’d be back this evening.” He spoke softly with a hint of wistfulness indicating his hesitancy to leave.

She didn’t want him to go, not after what they’d just shared, so she wrapped her fingers through his and looked him squarely in the eye.

“Peeta… Stay with me?”

She watched the hint of melancholy in his eyes fade and a smile spread across his face. Returning to her side underneath the covers, he pulled her close to him and kissed the top of her head.

“Always,” he whispered.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to ombradellaluna for the gorgeous artwork.


End file.
